PLAGIARISM: Student Essay Exercise
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From Napster to Wal-Mart
I was a sophomore in high school when Napster first appeared, and it was just what I needed. Like just about everyone I knew, I wanted to listen to my favorite songs, but I couldn’t afford to pay fifteen to twenty dollars for each CD to get only the one or two songs I really liked. Making poor quality copies off the radio seemed like something my parents would do. Therefore, being a teenager, it seemed like a pretty lame solution to me. My older brother and his friends at college had similar complaints.
Then in 1999, according to an article by Damien Cave and others in Rolling Stone magazine, Shawn Fanning, a student at Northeastern University, dropped out of college to develop his computer program, Napster, that allowed people to exchange music files easily over the Internet. At its peak in the summer of 2000, there were 58 million registered users. Napster allowed us to make almost CD-quality copies (MP3 files) through a server from somebody else’s computer as long as we allowed other people to make copies of our files. It worked, and the price was great—free!
Soon after Napster appeared, the recording companies and artists struck back. In late 1999, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sued Napster, accusing it of “violating federal and state laws through ‘contributory and vicarious copyright infringement" (Macavinta). Many performers were angry, too, because they felt that filesharing was causing them to loose royalty payments for their music. By March 2000, an article in the online magazine Salon.com had the title, “Artists to Napster: Drop Dead!” The metal band Metallica was especially loud in its complaints, believing, according to bandmember Lars Ulrich, that “a line had been crossed” (54).The artists and companies complained that file-swapping was wrong and was causing them to lose money, but in my research I did not encounter any real attempts to respond to people’s complaints about the high price of CDs.
Lawsuits forced Napster in 2000 to find a partner with a major company (Bertelsmann, a German media company) and begin charging for its services (Craig), but swapping of free music files did not stop. In 2000 and the years that followed, other programs took Napster’s place. The programs often overloaded campus networks and caused complaints like this from Cornell University’s computer services newsletter, CIT News: “Napster, Gnutella, iMesh, CuteMX . . . file-sharing applications like these are sprouting up everywhere. They’re designed to let people easily exchange music, movies, videos and other files over the Internet. But they’re not as harmless as they might seem. Their use raises important issues regarding copyright law, network traffic and security.”
Most students and other people knew all along that getting something for nothing probably wasn’t legal but told themselves that it was ok because the greedy recording companies were charging too much anyway. As one high school student from the San Francisco area said in 2003, Although the industry’s per-unit cost for CDs is low, the price of CDs for teenage consumers is too high at $20 each. (Zhou) Downloading and filesharing was taking place around the world as well and for the same reasons. As one student from Saudi Arabia said in 2002, “There is no way I’m buying a CD, I download everything from the net. Stuff is too expensive, most people download their stuff from the net or buy illegal copies, so do I, you don’t expect me to spend 20 dollars on an album?”
Even when the RIAA started suing individual downloaders in 2000, the downloading continued (Levy 50). It looked like nothing would slow down the growth of free filesharing services. Predicting the future is always difficult, however, especially in the age of technology. Would anyone at the height of Napster’s early success have predicted that pay-for-download services might be successful? In October 2004, journalist Robin Arnfield reported that Apple’s iTunes, charging ninety-nine cents for downloading a song, had already had hundreds of millions of downloads, with a weekly average at the time of reporting of more than four million.
Most of all, who would have predicted that colleges would begin advertising their music and video filesharing programs as a recruitment tool? But they have. As one report indicated, by the fall of 2004, twenty universities had signed deals to offer filesharing programs to students, providing discounted downloading or free music (“Report”).William Glanz reported in The Washington Times (online edition) that Penn State students began trial use of the pay-for-download service of Napster in January 2004, and that the experiment was a great success.
It looks like a shift in attitudes toward filesharing is beginning to happen. I can’t explain all the reasons for the change. I don’t think anyone can. I can offer one explanation though. Cost and quality of downloads have played important roles since the beginning of filesharing. I see this as an example of what I call the Wal-Mart principle, from that company’s advertising slogan, “Watch out for falling prices.” Wal-Mart isn’t alone in making this approach a business focus. Stores throughout most towns advertise “Higher quality, lower price” and “More for less.” This combination seems to motivate much of what we do, and I think it is one of the important things behind what is beginning to look like a move from illegal to legal (and low cost) filesharing. Maybe filesharing needs a slogan of its own: “If you make it cheaper, they will come.”
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Works Cited
Arnfield, Robin. “iTunes Downloads Hit 150-Million Mark.” CIO Today. 16 Oct. 2004. 21 Oct. 2004
<
story.xhtml?story_title=iTunes-Downloads-Hit-Million-Mark&story_id=27641>.
Boehlert, Eric. “Artists to Napster: Drop Dead!” Salon.com. 24 March 2000. 17 Oct. 2004
<
“Cost of CDs Makes You Download Music.” CBBC Newsround. 16. 12. 29 Sept. 2002. 18 Oct. 2004
<
2287344.stm>.
Craig, Andrew. "Napster Plans to Charge Users." Computing 9 Nov. 2000: 52.
Glanz, William. “Colleges Offer Students Music Downloads.” The Washington Times.25 Aug. 2004. 17 Oct.
2004 <
Lyons, Beth Goelzer. “Some Uses of Napster & Relatives May Violate Cornell Policy.” CIT News. Oct. 2000.
15 Oct. 2004 <
Macavinta, Courtney. “Recording Industry Sues Music Start-Up, Cites Black Market.” CNET News.com. 7
Dec. 1999. 18 Oct. 2004 < 2100-1023-234092.html?legacy=cnet.>
Ulrich, Lars. "It's Our Property." Newsweek 5 June 2000: 54.
Zhou, Kevin. “Will Teens Stop Downloading Music?” San Francisco Chronicle. 2 Oct. 2003. 17 Oct. 2004
<
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Student Paper Example #1
Then in 1999, according to an by Damien Cave and others in Rolling Stone magazine, Shawn Fanning, a student at Northeastern University, dropped out of college to develop his computer program, Napster, that allowed people to exchange music files easily over the Internet. At its peak in the summer of 2000, there were 58 million registered users.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
I was paired with a roommate who was a big partyer and would skip class to download obscure rap tracks,” says Shawn Fanning, who was a freshman at NortheasterUniversity in 1998 when he came up with the idea for Napster. “His friends would come to party on weekends,” he says, “and he’d try to explain how he got this music.” At the time, downloading MP3s took forever, and the results were unreliable. Fanning himself was using a kind of instant messaging program to trade songs—demos he’d written on guitar, a cover of Bob Marley’s “Zimbabwe,” by Bradley Nowell from Sublime, Gov’t Mule doing Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”—but he was convinced that there had to be an easier way. He soon became so engrossed in the developing Napster system that he, too, was skipping class. By January 1999, he dropped out and set up shop in his uncle’s Massachusetts office space, where he worked on Napster full time.
Fanning perfected the early versions of the program by testing it out with a small group of friends. “It started spreading to people I didn’t know,” he says. “The server got up to its capacity of 100 people.” Within months, Napster was attracting hundreds, then thousands, then millions—all trading digitized songs online for free. By the time the music industry figured out what was going on, the peer-to-peer service had spread like wildfire.
At its peak in the summer of 2000, there were 58 million registered users and, at any given time, more than 450 million tracks were available for trading (Cave et al.).
Works Cited
Cave, Damien, et al. “Napster’s Free-For-All.” Rolling Stone 24 June 2004. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. U of Rhode Island Lib. 15 Oct. 2004. <
citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+C6045BB8%2DED9.html>
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #2
In late 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster, accusing it of “violating federal and state laws through ‘contributory and vicarious copyright infringement” (Macavinta).
ORIGINAL SOURCE
Major record studios sued a five-month-old music company today, claiming that its software creates a black market for illegal copies of digital music.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, the Recording Industry Association of America charges start-up Napster with violating federal and state laws through “contributory and vicarious copyright infringement,” because it has created a forum that lets online users trade unauthorized music files directly from their PCs.
Works Cited
Macavinta, Courtney. “Recording Industry Sues Music Start-Up, Cites Black Market.” CNET News.com. 7
Dec. 1999. 18 Oct. 2004. < 2100-1023-234092.html?legacy=cnet.>
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #3
The metal band Metallica was especially loud in its complaints, believing, according to bandmember Lars Ulrich, that “a line had been crossed” (54).
ORIGINAL SOURCE
But when we found out that people were trading these songs on this thing called Napster, which we hadn't even heard of, we felt a line had been crossed (Ulrich 54).
Works Cited
Ulrich, Lars. "It's Our Property." Newsweek 5 June 2000: 54.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #4
Lawsuits forced Napster in 2000 to find a partner with a major company (Bertelsmann, a German media company) and begin charging for its services (Craig), but swapping of free music files did not stop.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
Darling of the Internet, Napster, is to charge users under a subscription-based model launched in partnership with German entertainment giant Bertelsmann (Craig 52).
Works Cited
Craig, Andrew. "Napster Plans to Charge Users." Computing 9 Nov. 2000: 52.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #5
The programs often overloaded campus networks and caused college officials to make complaints like this one from CornellUniversity’s computer services newsletter, CIT News: “Napster, Gnutella, iMesh, CuteMX . . . file-sharing applications like these are sprouting up everywhere. They’re designed to let people easily exchange music, movies, videos and other files over the Internet. But they’re not as harmless as they might seem. Their use raises important issues regarding copyright law, network traffic and security.”
ORIGINAL SOURCE
Napster, Gnutella, iMesh, CuteMX . . . file-sharing applications like these are sprouting up everywhere. They’re designed to let people easily exchange music, movies, videos and other files over the Internet. But they’re not as harmless as they might seem. Their use raises important issues regarding copyright law, network traffic and security (Lyons).
Works Cited
Lyons, Beth Goelzer. “Some Uses of Napster & Relatives May Violate Cornell Policy.” CIT News Oct. 2000.
15 Oct. 2004. < news00/napster.html>.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #6
As one high school student from the San Francisco area said in 2003, Although the industry’s per-unit cost for CDs is low, the price of CDs for teenage consumers is too high at $20 each. (Zhou)
ORIGINAL SOURCE
Although the industry’s per-unit cost for CDs is low, the price of CDs for teenage consumers is too high at $20 each (Zhou)
Works Cited
Zhou, Kevin. “Will Teens Stop Downloading Music?” San Francisco Chronicle 2 Oct. 2003. 17 Oct. 2004.
< 10/02/EDGQL22E6A1.DTL>.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #7
As one student from Saudi Arabia said in 2002, “There is no way I’m buying a CD, I download everything from the net. Stuff is too expensive, most people download their stuff from the net or buy illegal copies, so do I, you don’t expect me to spend 20 dollars on an album?”
ORIGINAL SOURCE
There is no way I’m buying a CD, I download everything from the net. Stuff is too expensive, most people download their stuff from the net or buy illegal copies, so do I, you don’t expect me to spend 20 dollars on an album? (“Cost”).
Works Cited
“Cost of CDs Makes You Download Music.” CBBC Newsround 16. 12. 29 Sept. 2002. 18 Oct. 2004
< newsid_2287000/2287344.stm>.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #8
Even when the RIAA started suing individual downloaders in 2000, the downloading continued (Levy 50).
ORIGINAL SOURCE
First came a filing from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for copyright infringement. Then the heavy-metal Metallica crew found their music downloaded on Napster and were furious--they had their lawyer file another suit. For good measure they sued some of the universities whose students used Napster, including Yale and the University of Southern California. Further, the band took the drastic step of collecting the handles of 300,000 users who had allegedly downloaded Metallica songs, demanding they be removed from the system. Drummer Lars Ulrich personally delivered the names. Another suit was filed, by rapper Dr. Dre. (All are currently pending.)
Meanwhile, Napster's popularity kept increasing (Levy).
Works Cited
Levy, Steven, et al. “The Noisy War Over Napster.” Newsweek 5 June 2000: 46-53.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #9
In October 2004, journalist Robin Arnfield reported that Apple’s iTunes, charging ninety-nine cents for downloading a song, had already had hundreds of millions of downloads, with a weekly average at the time of reporting of more than four million.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
iTunes online music store sold its 150 millionth song on Thursday. Cupertino, California-based Apple said iTunes customers now are downloading songs at a rate of over 4 million tracks per week (Arnfield).
Works Cited
Arnfield, Robin. “iTunes Downloads Hit 150-Million Mark.” CIO Today 16 Oct. 2004. 21 Oct. 2004
<
story.xhtml?story_title=iTunes-Downloads-Hit-Million-Mark&story_id=27641>.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #10
As one report indicated, by the fall of 2004, twenty universities had signed deals to offer filesharing programs to students, providing discounted downloading or free music (“Report”).
ORIGINAL SOURCE
To date, at least 20 universities, including PennsylvaniaStateUniversity, the University of Miami and NorthernIllinoisUniversity, have signed deals with Napster 2.0, Ruckus, RealNetworks Inc. and other licensed download services to provide students with discounted downloading or free music streaming (“Report”).
Works Cited
“Report: Universities Curtail Online Piracy.” Boston Herald.Com 25 Aug. 2004. 15 Oct. 2004.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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Student Paper Example #11
William Glanz reported in The Washington Times (online edition) that PennState students began trial use of the pay-for-download service of Napster in January 2004, and that the experiment was a great success.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
PennStateUniversity was the first school to read agreement with an online music service. A limited number of students there have used Napster since January, when the school began a pilot project. Hundreds of thousands of music files have been downloaded by students using Napster, land access will be increased to all 75,000 this month, Penn State President Graham Spanier said.
“I think if we tried to take it away at this point there would be a rebellion,” he said (Glanz).
Works Cited
Glanz, William. “Colleges Offer Students Music Downloads.” The Washington Times 25 Aug. 2004. 17 Oct.
2004 < 20040824-103654-1570r.htm.>.
WHERE'S THE PROBLEM?
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